The British government was grilled in parliament on Wednesday as it denied claims by Mauritius that a new deal to return the Chagos Islands changes the lease terms for a key US military base.
The foreign ministry hit back at reports that Britain would pay Mauritius up to £18 billion (£22 billion) to use Diego Garcia island in the Indian Ocean chain where the base is.
Britain and its former colony reached a deal in October to hand back the isles — which it kept control of after Mauritius gained independence in the 1960s — on condition that the military base remains on Diego Garcia, the largest island.
The base is leased to the United States and has become one of its key military facilities in the Asia-Pacific.
Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam, who demanded the terms be renegotiated after taking office in November, said Tuesday that the rewritten agreement would give his country a say on extending the terms of the lease beyond 99 years.
The previous agreement had allowed the UK to unilaterally extend the lease by 40 years, but the new terms would require the consent of Mauritius, he said.
“THERE HAS BEEN NO CHANGE TO THE TERMS OF EXTENSION IN THE TREATY,”
a Foreign Office spokesperson said in a statement emailed to AFP.
Ramgoolam also suggested that Britain’s payment to Mauritius to lease the base should take into account inflation, which led UK media to report that the cost could double from £9 billion to £18 billion.
“The figures being quoted are entirely inaccurate and misleading,” the Foreign Office spokesperson added.
– Opposition ire –
The £18 billion figure was seized on by opposition figures during a weekly question session with Prime Minister Keir Starmer in parliament.
Opposition Leader Kemi Badenoch accused Starmer of “shovelling money to Mauritius”, while hard-right Reform UK head Nigel Farage raised an urgent question on the deal.
However, Starmer said the base was “vital to our national security”.
“Without legal certainty the base cannot operate in practical terms as it should,” Starmer said in parliament.
In 2019, the International Court of Justice recommended that Britain hand the archipelago to Mauritius after decades of legal battles.
The UK government says handing the islands back is essential so Britain and the United States can keep using the base.
Responding to Farage, Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty added that Britain and Mauritius had made “very good progress towards this deal” following “technical talks”.
“Both sides have agreed that, given the importance of the base to the United States as well as ourselves, it is right that the US administration has the chance to consider the full agreement properly,” Doughty added.
The United States has used Diego Garcia as a hub for long-range bombers and ships, notably during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In creating the base, Britain evicted thousands of Chagos islanders who have since mounted a series of legal claims for compensation in British courts.
If Washington refuses to support the deal, Ramgoolam has said Mauritius would pursue its fight for full sovereignty over the Chagos islands.